Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 9/21/26: Houthis Bomb Saudi Capital, Yanis Varoufakis On Moscow Strikes And Petro Dollar Collapse

Episode Date: September 21, 2026

Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump panics as Houthis bomb Saudis, Yanis Varoufakis on Ukraine strikes in Moscow and petro dollar collapse.   Yanis Varoufakis: https://x.com/yanisvaroufakis   To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Atria Health Institute in New York City. I'll be talking to top researchers and clinicians and bringing vital information about midlife women's health. directly to you. A hundred percent of women go through menopause. Even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it? Listen to decoding women's health with Dr. Elizabeth Pointer on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey guys, ready or not, 2024 is here, and we,

here at Breaking Points, are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio, ad staff, give you guys the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that, let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody. Happy Monday. I have an amazing show for everybody today. What about Bristol? Indeed, we do a lot going on with regards to the Iran War. The Houthis were able to strike the main international airport in Riyadh. Trump is apparently at a complete loss as to what to do about the situation. We've got new inside details there. Janus Fairfok is going to join us this morning to talk both about the latest with

regards to Ukraine, they launched a massive drone attack on Moscow. And we're also going to get them to break down the global bond selloff, which has been incredibly consequential here and around the world. The U.S. apparently almost started a war with China based on a faulty chat GPT AI report. So love that for us and for the world. Truckers are sounding off as diesel tops $6.50 a gallon. and Ed Shearren weeps and copes after kicking McElmore off his concert. We got a little video for you. Hopefully they don't copyright us. We're going to take the chance.

That's right. There's nothing better than Ed crying. Thank you to everybody who has been subscribing, breaking points.com. We have our free trial going on right now. Now, Ryan has said that you should only sign up on Wednesdays and Fridays. And so how about we count it so that if you sign up with its meat, it just goes, or it counts exclusively to Ryan's total. And that way, I no longer am a factor in this conversation whatsoever.

So you can sign up whenever you want. All right, I am no longer, if I'm taking myself out of this race completely. BreakingPoint.com. Go ahead and, oh, it's over. It's long been over, you know, at this point. If you're watching this on YouTube, please hit subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you're listening to a podcast, please share this episode with a friend. But as Crystal said, so the Trump indecisiveness is really kind of one of the major headline stories this morning.

Let's put this up here on the screen, breaking, uh, early. this morning from the New York Times. Basically, they say Trump gets caught in a dilemma over a Saudi plea for military help. So obviously, the major headline story of the last two weeks has been the extraordinary Houthi military campaign against the Saudi-backed forces in Yemen, where they not only were able to seize strategic port of Moka, but they were also able to take control of the entire Bab al-Mandab Strait. By taking control of the strait, they have effectively forced Saudi Arabia to no longer be able to move any oil via their port of Yanbu, and instead they have to move it through the Suez Canal,

which is incredibly costly and very inefficient. In addition to that, Iranian forces, apparently from Iraq, were able to dismantle at least partially parts of the Saudi East to West pipeline. So they're putting significant pressure on Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia long has held the United States. It's made military backer, right? We'll remember that one of the main reasons we were even involved in the first, first place in the first Gulf War, it was to protect Kuwait and stop it from Iraqi invasion,

but we also had all those U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia. So it's a decades-long military relationship. And MBS has been lighting Trump up on the phone ever since this prolonged Houthi campaign. Like, you need to help me. You need to help me. You said you were going to help me. You know, this is your whole thing. You're the empire. We've bought hundreds of billions of dollars of your military equipment. Like, we're your number one ally. You're supposed to, you know, preserve freedom of navigation. And apparently Trump was in Camp David over the weekend for a major military deliberation over whether they should go in and strike Yemen. Now, why anyone thinks that's even going to work this time? I don't even know, considering how many times we have tried to bomb Yemen,

bomb the Houthis, they were under sustained bombardment for almost 12 years. The United States alone, I think it's like Operation Rising Lion or something like that back in 2025. Total disaster. Biden famously, we bombed the Houthis. Did it work? No. Are we going to keep? still keep doing this? Yes. So this is multiple presidents now who continued to try the bomb strategy. And Trump was apparently convinced to do it. Trump had met with advisors on Saturday, told them he did not favor strikes. But after speaking with the Saudi Crown Prince, reversed himself and told the Pentagon to prepare for air strikes against us Houthis. Midday Sunday, the president appeared to have reversed himself again. There would be no U.S. air strikes. Despite the fact

that the bombs were literally being loaded on the planes at the time, the strike package, and all of that had been drawn up. And just to show you how real this was, put A3 on the screen. All of the signs were lining up yesterday for major escalation. The U.S. mission to the UAE, in addition to multiple of the embassies across the region, put out similar statements,

basically saying due to tensions in the Middle East, the security environment remained complex. Americans should exercise, heightened vigilance, and be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions. This was UAE. was Saudi Arabia, this was Kuwait, Bahrain, all of the entire Gulf. In addition, the U.S. virtual embassy in Tehran basically said all Americans need to leave. And it appears that Trump

at the very last second decided to pull back. And this shows the vice that he is in. He can't protect America's allies, Saudi Arabia, without risking Iranian and Houthi backlash to even further constrain the price of oil. All this man cares about at this point is the price of oil. And you and I know at the same time, he also cares about not admitting defeat. Admitting defeat would immediately lower the price of oil and immediately get things flowing throughout the region. But the Iranians are like, yeah, for that to happen, there's a whole list of conditions, which is complete and total surrender. And in addition to that, we're in a worse strategic position than we are. So we either abandon Saudi. That's one option, which is bad,

of course, you know, just strategically for the empire. But then the other part is that we continue on this course, the fecklessness and we, or the fecklessness and we go forward, trying some stupid hootty bombing campaign and still diminish the amount of air strike, or the munitions and others. Remember, the United States is currently in a ceasefire from 2025 onward with the huthies. And if that were to light up again, now the United States Navy, which is trying to do some convoy system through the Strait of Hormuz, oops, now we've got a whole other straight that we've got to start worrying about and protect shipping. We just don't have the munitions for it. Yeah, that's exactly right. And that's apparently what Trump ultimately decided.

is that we are not in any position to open up an entirely new front of this war because we already are failing on the front that we have opened. So right now, the Houthis are attacking. Obviously, they're trying to take all of Yemen. They're attacking Saudi Arabia. We can put A1 up on the screen. I mean, this is pretty extraordinary to see. This is the main international airport in Riyadh that was successfully struck by the Houthis. You can see the black smoke rising there.

you can see the fire. I can't even imagine. Like, can you imagine if they hit DCA right here? I mean, uh, or, or even, you know, Dulles? That would be such a shock to the system. And so these Gulf nations have felt very insulated from any sort of regional instability. That's a whole basis of their economies, both in terms of tourism and as destination for global capital. All of that has been completely rocked. And so look, the Saudis also were foolish in, according to the reporting, encouraging us at the beginning to get into this war with Iran. Oh, we've got your back. We want you to go ahead because they see Iran, of course, as a regional rival. They wanted Iran to be put in check. And so this is sort of, you know, them having to deal with the fruits of their own decision-making

and pushing Trump in this direction as well. But it's a wild situation. Right now, the Houthis are not attacking American ships. We have had this ceasefire that has taken hold after we basically had to admit defeat. Okay, we're not going to defeat you even though we've been bombing you for years at this point. This is not taking you out. So we're going to have to come to some sort of accommodation. Trump was persuaded for a moment to undermine that deal and blow that up and open up this new front. And that at the very last second, after all of these warnings, he is like, oh my God, we just, we just can't do this. So there is no strategy. Like any concept, there's some 40 chest going and we're going to squeeze them and we're going to wait them out. And this was

what's going to happen. No, he's flying by the seat of his pants because after day two, of this war, when the entire Iranian regime did not collapse, he has been out of ideas and desperately scrambling to try to figure something out on the fly ever since then. Yeah, he's used to a situation where we could do this and there'd be relatively little cost. But when you control the Bab al-Mandep straight, you said shoot at U.S. forces. I mean, at that point, that's actually a secondary concern. We could probably shoot all those down. What if they just shoot at every single ship that's moving through Bab al-Mandep?

Oil will probably go to $200 barrel. Like, it's over at that point. And that's the nightmare scenario. That's exactly why he continues to be stuck in this. Remember, too, though, there are secondary consequences. At some point in the future or in the past, Saudi Arabia had denied the United States use of its airspace and of its bases to be able to launch a preemptive attack on Iran without getting some of the requisite protection that they want.

Well, are they going to do that now? Because they're screwed. I mean, they're in a situation where they are genuinely under attack from their oil infrastructure, the Aramcoa facility, east-west pipeline. I mean, the entire deal in Saudi Arabia, because Saudi is not the UAE, it is not Qatar. They don't have a tiny population, a bunch of slave Indians and Pakistanis doing all their work from.

They have tens of millions of people. Like, there actually is like a Saudi middle class, I guess, if you want. And for the entire deal is the kingdom, they get to do whatever they want. Like the House of Saud, they get the Monaco and the yachts and all of that. In exchange, we all get to have a normal, like pretty stable lifestyle. And we also, you know, we're hyper-religious freaks, the Wahhabis they get paid.

It's a deal that we all make in society. Well, if the security breakdown of that goes apart and you start to live in a world where the kingdom, the House of South, you know, all of their deals and their hated deals with the enemy and the West and all of that, if that starts not paying dividends

in your airport, I mean, your airport being on fire is insane. The Fuel Depot, like you said, here at Washington Reagan Airport, If the fuel depot there is getting lit up by drones, it's a 10 alarm fire. Like it's, that is a, that breaks. It's kind of like what's happening in Moscow. I mean, that's completely changes the strategic position of the entire, like the whole

situation. So let's go to A2 now on Iran. This is Trump spoke with the Trey, with Trey Yenks over at Fox News, while a lot of this was all in the, in the air about a potential attack. And he's just right back to, he's like, oh, maybe I'll just blow up. the entire country. Let's take a listen. Yeah, hey guys, good morning. I just spoke with President Trump about the situation with Iran. He tells Fox News he's in a deciding mode and that very big things are going to be happening

in the not so distant future. The president described the current choices on the table as wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal. He added my question is, if and when do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave. Now, I asked the president about the UN General Assembly this week, Iranian President, Massoud Possackian, is going to be there. And I asked if he'd be open to meeting with the Iranian leader. And he said he'd probably be open to it. But described this weekend as no different from any other weekend, despite these alerts that went out to U.S. citizens.

Right. And that was in the middle of the war planes, literally having the bombs loaded onto them. This is like, this is the point to where you can't even keep any of this stuff secret because they tried launching the secret attack, as we'll all recall. and what happened? Like a million Americans were stranded in the Middle East, unable to get out, so they have to put out the alerts. And the Iranians themselves remain very much on high alert. Let's put A5 on the screen. This is from their own broadcasting. They said the general staff, according to intelligence received, the United States has once again decided with the green light

from certain regional countries to resume actions against Iran during a joint meeting in a European nation. We don't even know exactly what that is alluded to, but it's very likely that there at least had been some briefing or something about the potential attack on Yemen, considering its consequences to the global economy. And we're about to talk about Ukraine with the situation with Janus. But the constraint on the diesel market at this point, it's just not going anywhere. And, you know, this is the problem when you break apart the entire U.S. energy or the entire global energy infrastructure, even if things were to end, like when I say gas would go down,

it would go down to $3.84 a gallon. Like, it's still the diesel price. It's not coming back down to, I don't even know what it was before the war. See, yeah, before the war launched 369 a gallon a year ago. So it was manageable. Obviously, the spread between that and gasoline, gasoline at that time was only 318. And so the spread right now remaining where it at, the refinery capacity, the amount of refineries in Russia that have all gone offline. And the general price increases that we're seeing, you know, the $1 million a day,

is so insane. And we're going to talk about that later with diesel, what is mentioned just right now. It is literally costing these, it's literally costing $26 a barrel just to charter the ships to get these things from the United States to Asia. And that's just because of the constraints from Boba Mondeb to the Strait of Hormuz and the general risk premium and demand. It's just craziness. Yeah. And we'll talk more later in the show, but a big piece of this is refinery capacity. You know, the U.S. has not been building new refineries. A lot of that capacity shifted to the Middle East and also to Russia. And that's not working out well for us. But Sagar has forgotten. We do have some secret weapons in this war that were just unveiled to the public.

This is A6. Let's take a look. We just got the pleasure and the privilege of getting a tour of the Pentagon. And what a cool experience. We see all the men and women here who are serving this great nation. I don't think there is any greater commitment to sacrifice than those who are willing to live, die, and fight for their country. So I think it's you guys who etch your names in history as you fight for and allow us in this country to have that freedom where we can prosper and be happy and be the great nation that we are. So a deep personal thank you from myself, my brother and all of our fellow Americans. Each one of you matter. Take this moment and be proud of yourselves for what you do. This is the greatest country in the world. Truly, we are blessed to be born here,

come here, and we should never take that for granted. That's what God created us for is to lift each other up in the hard moments, to be there for each other in the hard moments, and to come together as a collective and fight for good. That's why this country was formed. We should never forget that. It's truly inspiring. Oh, yeah. Department of War, Hyperio with Jake and Logan Paul there.

I mean, what can you say at this point? Neither are my eyes, by the way. We're a joke of a nation. We should just let the AI overlords take us over. Except they're about to get us a nuclear war with China. Yeah, we'll get to that later. Yeah, that's true. We'll just let the Chinese take us over.

A friend of mine. So you could not make. this up, like you really genuinely couldn't script it for a movie. It would be too preposterous. A friend of mine has a great take on this. He says, this is a lot of talk on the right about third worldism. And he says, this is actual third worldism, by the way. Trump is our first third world president. Pugilistic fights on the lawn of the National Palace, appointing family to do diplomacy, self-enriching via scams from elected office, losing an unpopular war, but making time for celebrity ceremony. And by the way, when we say celebrity, we,

mean like the D minus tier, where most people in polite society are like humiliated, these people are filthy, rich, and apparently represent the general tastes of our population. And we would all be better off if it didn't exist. So yeah, I mean, that's, that is the reality of this situation. I'd also note from my friends in the Pentagon press court, that is the press room where that happened, where they have not held a briefing in like, I don't even know, 50 days or something like that. It also comes at a time, this didn't even make the show, to show you where things are. In the old days, we would have been able to ask the Pentagon press about this. The Washington Post had a blockbuster report that more Americans have died in the Iran

war than they're letting on. This would obviously be a crazy revelation because, I mean, I've even said this on the show. It seems very difficult to assume that actual deaths could be covered up. And the reason why is that we have a system in the United States where, like, within 24 hours of death, the family has to get notified. And once the family gets, gets notified, you know, people post on Facebook. They have to have, we're not Russia. Like, you can't cover up whole funerals and all this stuff and take things down, at least not yet. And so for that, you know, that report, I was honestly stunned.

And then, you know, to have this situation happen, like in the Pentagon press briefing room where it's like some hype real that they're putting out. I mean, it's just humiliating. It's, there's just no way around it. Like these antics, look, if you're doing it while you're beating somebody's ass, fine. But there's so many instances like this where they're trying to pull out. the ton of 2024 greatest hits. They have Pat McAfee, who literally dominates all of our airwaves, and he's like,

oh, when you hear, like, during a flyover, McAfee had this take where he's like, during one of the NFL, maybe a college football game, where he's like, if you hear that sound running, your ass better, he's like, you hear that sound, your ass better be running. And it was like, dude, it ain't 2002. Right.

Like, the Iranians heard that sound, and they shot the plane down. Yeah. You know, and we had to go rescue Mr. Bravo. Apparently, like, that, it's not, we're not the big, bad military anymore. Like we're getting our asses kicked, literally right now. Yeah.

And so that's why, you know, if anything, this is actually a good emblem, I think. Also, just remember, you know, how many times we freak out about all these leftoid, ridiculous influencers in the Biden press room and their stupid little SNL skits and, you know, whatever, they're trans-topless. And it's like, okay, well, this is just as humiliating, okay? So, sorry. Stop. Hyper online presidency.

Obsessed with influencers. Like, remember all those videos of, like, Kid Rock and R.FK. Juniors. Like, I mean, sure. Duffy, who's the head of the Department of Transportation, filmed an entire reality show while he was supposed to be doing his job. I mean, it's just completely bonkers. And then meanwhile, Hegsef, who is literally just like a Fox News weekend TV host, is out there talking to the troops and pumping them up with a bunch of religious rhetoric framing this as some sort of freaking holy war. Like, it's so ridiculous and absurd. You have to laugh. But it's also just deeply disturbing

the way that they approach all of this. And it goes back to what Trump told Tucker reportedly. When Tucker was expressing, all this is like, I don't think this is going to go well. You shouldn't do this. And here's the risk, et cetera. Trump's like, don't worry. It's going to work out.

Tucker's like, well, why? Because it always does. That was the rationale. That was the entire rationale. That is how unsurious these people are. How little they think about the consequences for anyone in this country around the world, et cetera. So, anyway, perfect emblem of exactly

their approach to global affairs, I guess. Yep, that's right. All right, let's get to Ukraine. Behind every night spent making the kids' lunches, there's a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies? Will the pastos survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full,

or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on Internet with a two-year term and auto-pour. pay credit. Visit bell.ca for details and to check availability. Bell. Connection is everything.

Hi, this is Kylie Breakman. Angel Geratana. Jeremy Colhane. Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The improvised character comedy podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is faux journal. I don't know. Have you guys heard of faux journaling? Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading. So you're so. We don't like to use that word anymore. Okay. A panel of New Yorker cartoonists.

Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No! I've been dying too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audra McDonald's at the Wonderland Bookstore on 14. That's crazy. I went to the Wonderland Bookstore yesterday and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30. No way.

You have to come to the last bookstore, though. Kim Cottrell is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other.

You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Britt Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sikima. Have you ever watched a game and wondered what really made the difference beyond the final score. That's exactly why we created NFL pro. We've got a man wide open. Touchdown! Seahawks! Every week, we use exclusive next-gen stats insights and NFL content to break down the biggest stories, matchups, and moments from around

the league. We go beyond the box score to uncover the numbers, the tendencies, and details that help explain what actually happened on the field. Fires it out the flat to Barclay, who beats one man, Spends past another, leaps over a third. And don't worry, this isn't just a show for stats experts. We use advanced analytics to help tell the story behind the game, turning the numbers into insights that every fan can understand and enjoy. So whether you're a casual fan learning more about football or a hardcore fan who can't get enough analysis,

our goal is to help you see the game in a whole new way. If you've ever wanted to know why a playwork, how a matchup was won, or what most fans missed on Sunday, NFL Pro delivers insights you simply can't get anywhere else. Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Joining us now is our great friend Janis Verfakis. He is the economist, politician, and as he said, a self-described bullshit artist, although we do not think that is true at all.

Thank you very much, sir, for joining us. Well, thank you so much for being so forthcoming. All right, we're going to go ahead and start here with the situation in Ukraine. I know that you've been tracking so much of this situation closely, and it has major economic impacts for all of us. To start here with the first, which is a huge Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, which included targeted strikes towards oil infrastructure and specifically diesel refineries. We have some breaking news this morning of President Trump reacting to this, where he apparently spoke with President Zelensky and begged him. him to stop these strikes. Yanis, what do you make of Ukraine's now ability to project strikes, drone strikes, including cruise missile strikes, deep not only into Russia, into the capital,

to strike so much of their backbone of their economy with diesel? What does this heighten the stakes to and potentially lead us to some sort of troubling situation? Well, almost four years since the beginning of this all-out war, we ended up in an aerial stalemate in the same way that in the First World War, in the Great War, there was a stalemate of trench warfare. Two sides had stopped and they were just throwing bombs and mortars at one another. Now we have an aerial version of that. You mentioned this barrage of missiles and particularly drones fired by Ukraine against Russia.

But, you know, if you read the newspapers two days ago, it was the opposite. It was the jet-powered drones coming from Russia that was devastating Ukraine. So I think, you know, this is pretty symmetrical. What is not symmetrical is what's happening on the ground.

In the Donbos in particular, which is the number one priority of Vladimir Putin. there, very painfully, with huge human costs, the Russian army is steadily making encroachments. It's only a sliver of the Donbass that Vladimir Putin has not gotten. There's no doubt he won't stop before he gets all of the Donbass, at least. And, you know, one hopes and praise that the Europeans and the Americans and the Canadians are going to start having the conversation that we have refused to. have so far.

Because let's face it, NATO, and in particular Europe, has no plan for peace in Ukraine. If you ask them what kind of peace they envisaged, they only talk about the defeat of Russia, which is not going to happen. And they have no plan for war, because, you know, getting the Ukrainians to keep hoping that they will take back Crimea, whether there is no chance in hell of that or in heaven, it doesn't matter. Then, you know, that's, so we have neither a plan for peace nor a plan for war.

And, you know, meanwhile, people are dying on both sides. Infrastructure is being destroyed. Donald Trump is right to worry that, in addition to his folly in Iran, this war is pushing up, is restricting the supply of diesel, the supply of petrol, of gas, as you call it in the United States. And that is, that has detrimental effects on his, maga base in the Midwest. So this is where we are. This is what happens when you start a war

without a plan and you don't have a plan for war and you don't have a plan for peace. Let's go and put B3 up on the screen. You mentioned some of the Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Those are the Financial Times right up. They say Russia's new air campaign seeks to destroy the Ukrainian economy. They talk in particular about successful strikes on the steel industry. They have a quote here as of today. Ukraine does not have a steel industry anymore. war that's according to the head of the CEO's office at MedInvest, a steel mining company that owned two of the three plants that were targeted in the recent attacks. What is the reality of the war economy in Ukraine? How able are they to sustain their current efforts?

There's no doubt that there's an asymmetry. The Russian economy, and this is the great paradox, the Russian economy over the last four years, has strengthened as a result of military Kenzianism, of the war economy. The war economy allowed Vladimir Putin and his government a lot more control of the macroeconomy than he had before the war. This is tragic, but true. In sharp contrast, the Ukrainian economy has gone backwards as a result of this war.

It's an asymmetrical war. There's no doubt that Russia is far more powerful and can inflict a lot more damage. It has inflicted a lot of damage. It has taken 20% of it. Ukrainian territory. And it's actually the greatest problem that Ukraine is facing is not just the steady bombardment of its infrastructure, it's lack of labor, lack of human resources, both in the

military sector and in the civilian sector. But I don't think that either side is going to throw its collective hands up in the air to surrender because of the economic damage that is being done, or the damage to its infrastructure, or the damage to its oil industry. Sadly, fortunately, unfortunately, depending on your own ethical and political disposition, this work can go on for a very long time. What I think is going to settle it is the usual thing, that is boots on the ground. So, for instance, I can envisage a situation where once you,

he gets the whole of Dombas, steeped in blood, of course, Putin declaring a unilateral ceasefire. I can envisage that. I cannot see what the Ukrainians can do as, you know, a government with its own agency. Just wait for the Russians to declare a unilateral ceasefire. The blame for this continued attrition, which has repercussions.

for all of us, also for the global south. And look at fertilizer prices, the price of food, the price of energy and so on everywhere, from Bangladesh to Ethiopia. The blame, I think, goes primarily upon Europeans who are gung-ho about this Ukrainian war. They keep egging Zelensky and his government on. Back in April of 2022, a few months, a couple of months, after Putin unleashed his invasion of Ukraine, the two sides had approached a deal. It was almost a done thing. And it was particularly the British and the Europeans who told Zelensky, don't sign this. You have to win this

war. And, you know, but we, we Europeans, we are European governments, not the people of Europe, we've been absolutely irresponsible because we're egging Ukraine to go on and on, but we're not prepared to put boots on the ground to support them, and we're not prepared even to give them the money that they need. And the reason for that is, of course, that the European Union is bankrupt. If you look at the European Union budget, the budget of the European Commission, it's under severe strain. And you've got countries like France facing a general election and a presidential election, and you can see that it is impossible to imagine the French government in six, eight months, agreeing to pay more to the European Union budget so that Ukraine gets

more support. So it's an all-round disaster. Yeah, Janice, this is what's so difficult. You know, here in the United States, everything you're laying out is well within the bounds of our discussion. You can correct me if I'm wrong. From what I see, this is non-starter, even talking this way, in much of the higher echelons of the European Union. In fact, I believe we had, yeah, let's put B5 up here on the screen, where Emmanuel Macron is now calling an emergency G7 meeting or energy prices spike. Russian hybrid attacks mount, or at least what they're claiming are Russian hybrid attacks on these German like power plants. We also had some reports out of Estonia, for example,

put B4, please, on the screen, where it appears that the Russian or the FSB has put some sort of travel restriction and curfew on Russia's border with Estonia. Again, very difficult to suss out the reality of much of this. But how exactly can Europe and the EU begin to grapple with this reality if the reality has not been ever present now for almost four years? I mean, almost since the outbreak of the war, it was very obvious. This is where things were going to go. And despite kind of the escalation and the ratcheting up, it appears that they're even more gungho to support Zelensky, despite the fact that they can celebrate a strike on, you know, Russian oil refineries. They need to grapple with the fact the Ukraine just has no steel industry now at all.

That last part doesn't seem to like register whatsoever in any of the capitals or in Brussels. You see, the tragedy is that our great and good leaders, Manuel Macron in France, Andy Burnham and Britain, Friedrich Mertz, in Germany and so on. when they talk about the war in Ukraine, when they prognosticate the eruption of a war on the soil of EU member states or NATO member states, when Macron called various politicians to the Elyzer, to the palace, to the presidential palace, and he gave them a briefing that put the fear of hell into the people who attended. when they do all that and when they speak those words, sadly and tragically, they're not thinking

about the Ukrainians. They're not thinking about the people who are actually suffering on the ground. They have their own agendas. Let's take them one by one, shall we? Emmanuel Macron is a lame duck president. He's very keen to do whatever it takes to stop Marie Le Pen from succeeding him in the Elysee. He has a huge problem with the budget, the national budget, which is now exploding. It's above 5.5% of GDP in terms of the deficit when the rules of the EU stipulate a maximum

3%. His own centrist minions, who should be positioning themselves now to run in the election against Le Pen, are nowhere to be seen in the opinion polls. So to him, it is functional. It is in his interests to create a lot of noise, ruckus, in order to hide his political and economic, how shall I put it, the failures. Now, similarly in Germany, Volkswagen cannot sell cars. And they can sell cars because they haven't invested in modern technologies,

in batteries and so on over the last 15, 60 years. So what are they doing? shifting production lines to Rheinmetals to produce tanks, leopard tanks that the Ukrainians don't even want because they are death traps. It is functional to the interest of the German government to warmonger, to scare people to death, so that they accept increased the expenditure on, you know, Ryan Metal to build tanks that nobody wants.

Because this is the only way they can maintain some industrial jobs to, you know, decelerate the pace of time. the industrialization. I can tell you a similar story about Andy Burnham. So in the end, these people are going into a warmongering frenzy for reasons that have nothing to do with Ukraine. Let's go and put B6 up on the screen. So Zelensky says he's meeting with Trump at the UN General Assembly this week. He says that they are going to talk about a peace plan. The peace track, he says, is our number one priority. There are ideas for de-escalation steps for addressing fundamental security issues, we're working together with the American team and are ready to take really

serious steps. He also applauds Trump for signing the Lindsay Graham Russian sanctions bill into law. He says, we all concur. There must be peace. If we were actually serious, if Trump was actually serious about doing what he promised would be done before even day one of his presidency and bringing this war to a conclusion, what is the sort of deal that could be struck at this point? What is in the realm of realistic possibility? What sort of things would have to be given up on the Ukrainian side of the ledger in particular? Well, given that Donald Trump is not particularly interested in Europe or in Ukraine, he's far more interested in China. He's far more interested in the Middle East. He's interested mostly in his ballroom, Janus, to be honest with you.

And his bank account, it's crypto. All of that. Ventures and all that. The key is Europeans. The Europeans should open up channels of communication with Vladimir Putin. However vile he might be, since you don't have a plan to defeat him, you've got to have a plan to find some kind of peace deal with him that will leave everybody dissatisfied, but it will be far better than the never-ending war in Ukraine. And the United States, I think, would have gone along with that. my advice to the Trump administration, of course, they are not going to listen to my advice,

and that's not such a bad thing, because then if they did, then I would have an existentialist crisis. Setting them aside, my advice would be, talk to the Germans, to the French and the British, and tell them to stop, you know, just pushing the envelope further and further into the future. There has to be a comprehensive agreement between NATO and Russia on a common, peace and security agenda for Eurasia. I think that Vladimir Putin would respond positively to this. It would give him a way out. He would be able to tell his own oligarchs, his own cronies,

look what I've done. I've invaded Ukraine. And now what Russia has been calling for since the early 1990s, a comprehensive peace and agenda security agreement has been, you know, sort of railroaded. What would that include? Well, it should include, on the one hand, some deal regarding the Donbas, which is the, you know, it is ground zero of this war. This is the main battlefield. I think that some constructive ambiguity should be included in this, in the sense that official sovereignty should not be handed over to Russia,

but at the same time there should be an agreement that there is freedom of movement, but the area is controlled by Russia. Look, we've done this before. Think of the Good Friday Agreement that ended the troubles in Northern Ireland. It was a messy deal with effectively joined sovereignty over Northern Ireland between London and Dublin. Northern Ireland stays formally within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. But Dublin has a say. And the two communities that were at loggerheads

who were killing each other and blowing each other up and now share local government as well as regional government on a 50-50 basis. So imagine such a deal for the Donbass. As for Crimea and other areas, well, that could be kicked into the long grass. It could be given to a committee of the United Nations to discuss over the next 50 years.

Like, you know, the United Nations is continuing to discuss a solution for the problem in Cyprus closer to my home. Well, you know, none of us are happy with this here in Greece or in Turkey or in Cyprus, but at least people are not dying every day. So that could be the beginning of a comprehensive treaty between NATO and the West and Russia. That will include checks and balances when it comes to AI-enhanced technologies for killing people. rolling back the nuclear threat, which the United States successive governments allowed to become a clear and present danger with the ending of the anti-ballistic missile treaty and so on.

So for me, that is what you do, even if the only thing you want to do is to reduce inflation. Because, you know, having the Fed increasing interest rates is not going to do anything. to lessen the inflation burden on Euro people when the price of oil is going up because refiners are being blown up in Russia or in the Ukraine. So end the war with Iran and the war in the Ukraine and start looking after the vast majority of people out there, whether they are in the United States or in Russia or in the Ukraine for that matter. Behind every night spent making the kids lunches, there is a lot of suspense. Will they finally eat the veggies?

Will the pesto survive the first bite? Will the lunchbox come home empty, half full, or come home at all? And will you finish episode 8 before you're done slicing the cucumbers? Get Bell Pure Fiber Internet with Craved Netflix and Disney Plus from $94 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on internet with a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.com.com for details and to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. Hi, this is Kylie Brakeman.

Angel Geratana. Jeremy Colhane, Patrick McDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of wellness influencers. What I try to do is faux journal. I don't know. Have you guys heard of faux journaling? Yeah, it's reading. It's called reading.

So we don't like to use that word anymore. A panel of New Yorker cartoonists. Have you guys done Terry Gross's Peloton class? No! I've been dying too. I'm so sorry. I'm seeing a reading of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Audra McDonald's at the Wonderland Bookstore on 14th. That's crazy.

I went to the Wonderland Bookstore yesterday, and I heard Nora Jones do a reading of Zero Dark 30. No way. You have to come to the last bookstore, though. Kim Cottrell is reading the guitar tabs of yesterday. A panel of Eurovision participants. And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween.

He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to artists on artists on artists on artists on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Brett Coleman. And I'm Trevor Sycamma. Have you ever watched a game and wondered what really made the difference beyond the final score?

That's exactly why we created NFL Prox. Got a man wide open. Seahawks. Every week, we use exclusive next-gen. stats insights and NFL content to break down the biggest stories, matchups, and moments from around the league. We go beyond the box score to uncover the numbers, the tendencies, and details that help explain what actually happened on the field. Fires it out in the flat to Barclay,

who beats one man, spins past another, leaps over at third. And don't worry, this isn't just a show for stats experts. We use advance analytics to help tell the story behind the game, turning the numbers into insights that every fan can understand and enjoy. So whether you're a casual fan learning more about football or a hardcore fan who can't get enough analysis, our goal is to help you see the game in a whole new way. If you've ever wanted to know why a playwork, how a matchup was won, or what most fans missed on Sunday, NFL Pro delivers insights you simply can't get anywhere else.

Listen to NFL Pro on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Yes. Let's also, while we have you, talk about the bond situation, you can put your economist background to use for us. We've had tremendous amount of trouble deciphering it. The Wall Street Journal actually helpfully wrote this. They say, why it's so hard to work out with the bond market is telling us, so we figured we would ask you. What we can generally say is it seems like it's a chaotic situation. Doesn't seem to be good for the United States. Appears to be a pretty big failure on behalf of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who's been single-hand handily trying to push these yields down. But overall, Janus, what do you see by the U.S.

within the U.S. bond market and what it tells us about both the conflict and the state of the global economy? Well, let me preface my general view on the bond market or the treasurer's market by saying that I'm astonished by the incompetence of Scott Peasant. I actually, I never liked the guy, but I thought he was competent until very recently. This notion, the very notion that he's going to bring bond yields down by getting the impecunious treasury, his treasury, which is running a huge deficit, to purchase long-dated bonds. I mean, you need to be an eight-year-old to know that that can't work. If the Fed were to buy treasuries, it could work. It would work. It has worked before. It would work again. But if I have a huge debt to you, I cannot solve my

debt problems by trying to, you know, borrow more in order to buy my debt from you. That for me is simply a no-brainer. And I really don't understand why he effectively shot himself in the foot doing this. Now, more generally, since you ask me my view about the market, firstly, it's not a crisis. Come on, folks. Look, I was looking today this morning. I was looking at the equivalent data from this period in 2001. We had more or less the same yields.

We had more or less the same inflation. We had more or less the same overnight Fed rate. Okay, you had the dot-com bubble bursting soon after that. But, you know, it's nothing unprecedented. all this talk that, you know, the United States federal government is going to go bankrupt. Now, you have to be utterly unschooled in basic public finance to think that. Because, you know, your country, not only that you enjoy the exorbitant privilege that is, you know, when I'm here in Athens, when I put gas in my car, I create demand for the US dollar,

even if no American company is involved in the gas that goes into my car. So you still have the exorbitant privilege, and you are printing the currency in which you and the rest of the world are boring. You can't go bankrupt. What can happen is you can have an inflation bout, right, which may lead to precipitous decline in the dollar. Well, to begin with, this is an administration that supposedly wants to reduce the value of the dollar. So that wouldn't be a catastrophe on its own.

Inflation would be. But, you know, when you've got cost-push inflation because of the idiotic war in Iran, price of oil goes up, that's cost-push inflation. Now, how is this going to be ameliorated by increasing interest rates? I just won't. The only thing you can do to push inflation down through monetary policy is destroy businesses. by increasing interest rates, and then you're going to have another problem. You will have destroyed output capacity, your capacity to manufacture stuff.

So, you know, your supply will come down and your aggregate supply will come down. And then, of course, that will make it much more difficult to constrain the rise in prices. So, you know, if this administration wanted to reduce inflation, and inflation is the only serious problem that your country is facing, not your country, but your financial markets are facing, then end the war in Iran and the war in Ukraine, find the modus vivendi with China, stop the idiotic spat,

whether it is between the two big techs or tariffs or whatever, and move on. So you referenced the position of the dollars, the world's reserve currency, the so-called exorbitant privilege, which partly undergirded by the petro-dollar, so-called petro dollar, which I also referenced when you're talking about filling, putting gas in your car here,

sort of undergirding that financial system. Is there any risk that the dynamics of the Iran war serve to undercut the stability or the longevity of the petro dollar system? Well, the petro dollar is dying, and it will die. And it will die because of electrification. As we speak, 85% of Pakistani families are no longer connected to the electricity grid because they all have Chinese solar panels and inverters and Chinese batteries. Same in Ethiopia.

It's going to happen in your country, too. We are going to electrify and turn to solar and turn to renewables, whatever Donald Trump says. And therefore, the petrol dollar aspect of the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar is almost gone. It will within the next 10 and 15 years, it will have gone completely. However, that doesn't mean that the reserve currency status of the dollar, the exorbitant privilege, as I called it before, is going to go. Because, you know, if you are, as we speak, you know, if you are a German manufacturer or a Japanese manufacturer or a Korean manufacturer and you're exporting, you're exporting

to the United States primarily, and you're importing dollars. What do you do your dollars in Korea or in Germany or in Japan? Or for that matter in China. They still have four and a half trillion dollars worth of sales. Well, you have to take it to Wall Street in order to buy federal debt, treasuries, or to buy real estate or whatever, or some equities if you're allowed to. So that is what recycles the exorbitant power of the dollar. It's not so much the petro aspect anymore. That was in the case, the case in the 1970s and in the 1980s, but that has been waning.

And there is another source of strength for the dollar that the Trump administration have been very keen. to enhance through the Genius Act, stable coins. Every time somebody buys Tether, effectively they use money to buy US dollars, even though they are privately minted, and that is very dangerous financial stability, but that's another matter. And then Tether takes that money and buys U.S. treasuries. So that's another way of recycling other people's money into the dollar system and therefore maintaining American and in Germany.

Now, even the Chinese, the Chinese don't want to undermine the hegemony of the American dollar. The greatest supporter of the US dollar is China, because, you know, they have four and a trillion dollars of savings. Now, if you have all your savings in, let's say, a Swiss bank account, would you want to undermine the Swiss banking system? I don't think so. They're very smart the way they're doing. What they're doing is they are creating in parallel, because they don't trust American politicians to know what's good for them and for America. what they are doing is they're creating their own financial network, their own financial system.

It's like building a super highway, you know, eight lanes on each side, which is not much used. You know, if you look at Embridge, the blockchain-based international payment system, it's magnificent compared to Swift. You know, because Swift is a terrible road full of potholes. It's a dollar road. The Chinese have, you know, a multi-lane highway, but nobody's using it. They don't want to use it themselves.

They just have it there if needs be. If the United States try to squeeze them, if they try to, let's say, impose sanctions on them for buying Iranian oil as this administration claim they will be doing, but I don't think they will dare do it. Then they will start using the superhigh way that they've built. But they're reluctant. As long as they're reluctant,

the reserve currency status of the dollar is going to be preserved. My last question for you, Janice, is President Xi is coming to our country, September 23rd, 25th. There's a lot on the table. Some of it is AI. A lot of it will be about tariffs and potentially, like you said, some sort of detente-style policy. What are you looking for in that meeting? What do you think that the most interesting results could come from it? And what's realistic also to expect?

Well, I think it's a very simple game of chicken between the two sides. What the United States has, the strong cards, the aces of the United States, of the administration, is their capacity to reduce aggregate demand in China by blocking their exports to the United States, but also indirectly to Europe, through tariffs, through various other means. And what the strong cards of the Chinese side are, of course, is rare earth. rare metals and other products which are essential for the AI boom in the United States, for the military procurement process and so on and so forth. So, you know, they are entering a room, each one of them carrying a big stick, a different

big stick, and if they're smart, they're going to set the big sticks on the floor and find a mutually advantageous agreement. That would be the ideal outcome for all of us. Janus Farifakis, author, journalist, politician, and co-host of the Econoclast podcast, which I highly recommend, and which is so aptly named because you always bring a different perspective to things. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Pleasure. Hi, this is Kylie Breakman.

Angel Geratana. Jeremy Colhane. Patrick MacDonald. And we're the hosts of the Artists on Artists on Artists Podcast. The Improvised Character Comedy Podcast where each week a new panel of artists discuss their craft. Join us for a panel of Eurovision participants.

And we do a little Halloween sometimes. Does the Pope dress up? He winks on Halloween. He gets right up next to the microphone. I hear you can almost hear the eyelashes hit each other. You never seen Italy so quiet as when the Pope gets up to wink on Halloween. Listen to Artists on Artists on Artists

every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Pointer, chair of Women's Health and Gynecology at the Atria Health Institute in New York City. I'll be talking to top researchers and clinicians and bringing vital information about midlife women's health directly to you. A hundred percent of women go through menopause.

Even if it's natural, why should we suffer through it? Listen to Decoding Women's Health with Dr. Elizabeth Pointer on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Patra Mathers and her husband Michael mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Dear honies, this is goodbye. By the time you get this letter, both Petra and I will be dead.

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